At present, approximately 30% of the organic cattle sold in Ireland are ending up in conventional beef-finishing systems.
That’s according to Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Organics Project Team leader, John Curran.
Speaking at a recent IFA organic farm walk on the farm of Mark Gillanders, Curran said that the number of organic cattle “leaking” from the organic beef system is an issue.
The IFA team leader believes there are a number of reasons why so many organic cattle are being bought by conventional finishers, one of which being prices.
“The conventional (weanling and store cattle) prices, especially for the higher grade of cattle, is the same or maybe better,” he said.
Curran also believes that logistical challenges are deterring organic farmers in some regions from finishing cattle.
However, one organic producer at the farm walk gave their opinion and argued that organic beef finishing is much more profitable than conventional beef finishing, where farmers are growing their own crops and using them for finishing cattle.
However, Curran said: “If you have to pay €50 to transport an animal from the west of Ireland to Cahir or Clones [the organic cattle processing facilities] the extra bit you’re getting is gone. It’s the same with the lambs.
“In the west, a lot of organic sheep farmers just sell their lambs as stores and don’t look into getting them to an organic farm to finish them.
“There’s a lot of work to be done with organic livestock markets creating producer groups and buyer groups and trying to capture this leakage, but there is a lot of leakage.”
Curran believes that the prime cause of the number of organically produced animals ending up in conventional finishing systems is that “the organic premiums are not high enough”.
Bord Bia’s Seamus McMenamin was also present at the farm walk and he said that there are currently approximately 20,000 organic cattle slaughtered in Ireland annually.
He added that Bord Bia is working to ensure there are new markets available for the extra organic Irish beef and lamb that will be coming available in the near future.
He gave an overview of organic beef prices and said that the organic lamb price is generally 15% higher than the conventional lamb price.
He stressed the importance of having a 52-week supply of product to ensure the further development of organic Irish beef and lamb markets and said this is a key demand of organic beef and lamb buyers on mainland Europe.